Weird World
by Bico
Summary: Korra and Asami have begun their adventures exploring the Spirit World, but more importantly exploring their own feelings.
1. Chapter 1

Glowing soul-flames floated in the air between the giant mushroom canopy above and the grassy ground below, softly lighting two forms that lay still beneath the Spirit World's night sky. Korra and Asami were position with their bodies facing away from each other, but their heads were side-by-side as they rested on their sleeping bags, using their backpacks as pillows. They both smiled contentedly at their surroundings as they spoke to each other in low, excited voices.

"I can't believe you managed to say that with a straight face," Asami said, doing her best to suppress a giggle.

"Well, I pretty much had to," Korra said. "I don't know about you, but I like my face where it is."

"Oh, so do I," Asami said, reaching her hand over to give her friend's opposite cheek a light pat. "Though you wouldn't have had to worry about your face if you could control that mouth."

Korra huffed good-naturedly. "Who do you think I am? Besides, I knew he wouldn't do anything to me. I was more worried about you, honestly. This place has a lot of strange rules and, well, you're developing a bad habit of finding them out the hard way."

Asami sighed. "I guess curiosity isn't a very adaptive trait in this world."

"Not really," Korra said with a smirk as she crossed her arms across her chest. "Probably why all the spirits I've met tend to be pretty dull if they're not crazy." She shifted onto her side to face Asami. "But that's why I like having you here, Asami. You make the Spirit World a lot more fun than it has any right to be."

"You're shameless," Asami said, giving her a look from the side. "I almost wish we never had to go back."

Korra laughed at the thought, though her eyes unfocused for a moment, considering what that might be like. Then her brows quirked as another thought struck her. "Say, did you ever tell anyone we were leaving?"

"Of course," Asami said, cocking her eyebrow. "Well, I let the board know I was taking a personal trip, but I didn't say where. I don't really have anyone else to tell, honestly."

"Oh," Korra said. "So… not even Mako or…?"

"Korra, did you not tell anyone you were leaving at all?" Asami said with a flat, unimpressed stare.

"I… I didn't really think of it at the time," Korra admitted, turning away as her face turned a dark red. "I was too excited. Besides, I figured you'd at least tell Mako and he'd let everyone else know…"

"Why would I tell Mako?" Asami said. "We haven't been that close for years, and you two have a lot more mutual friends. I would have thought if you'd have told anyone it would get back to him soon enough."

Korra moaned. "Tenzin's probably gonna send out a search party for me."

"Or just Jinora," Asami suggested. She rolled over onto her stomach, propping herself up on her elbows and gave her friend a look that was halfway between amused and exasperated. "Don't work yourself into a tizzy, dear. You could probably just get one of the spirits around here to take her a message before things get out of hand. It won't be so bad, though it would have been nice if you'd thought ahead."

Korra shrugged and looked up at Asami with soulful eyes. "Well, at least I'm not quite as bad as I was when we first met, right?"

"Right," Asami said, laughing as she put her hand on Korra's shoulder, giving it a light rub.

Korra fell into a contemplative silence after their laughter subsided. "Hey… Asami?"

"What's up, Korra?"

She shifted uncomfortably, reaching up to play with her short hair. "Well… you don't mind if I ask you something… a little personal, do you?"

"Korra," Asami said, her voice syrupy. "We wrote to each other about personal things for three years. I think I can handle it, now."

"Well, that's different," Korra said, avoiding eye contact with her. "I mean, we weren't face to face and I could think about what I was going to say… and it's a different kind of personal… I think."

"Just spill it, girl," Asami said, giving her a prod.

Korra grunted irately and then sighed. "So… you and Mako… did you two ever do anything more than… kissing?"

Asami's eyebrows went straight up. "Oh, my. Now that is a personal something." She grinned cattily at her friend's obvious embarrassment. "Don't worry about it. I'll have you know that Mako never made it past second base."

"'Base'...?" Korra said quizzically.

"We didn't do anything more than that," Asami said, shaking her head. She gave Korra a thoughtful look before her eyes widened. "Wait, you and he didn't…?"

"No!" Korra said. "No, I… I mean, there was one time he wanted to and… and I knew it was something we were supposed to do, but… it felt weird, I guess."

Asami frowned. "And it didn't go any further, right?"

Korra shook her head. "Mako actually stopped it when he saw that I wasn't comfortable. I… I felt like I failed, though. Like it was something I should be able to do with someone I love, but I just… choked. Like a picken."

Asami snorted, covering her mouth and nose to stifle it.

"What?"

"Oh… nothing," Asami said. "Just… I'm sure you're not the only one with the choked picken that night."

Korra stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment. Then the corners of her mouth began to creep toward her ears and she pointed her finger at her. "Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! I see what you did there." She laughed. "I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you."

"You mean you haven't been?" Asami asked, nudging her. "I should be offended." She sniffed. "But what brought this on, anyway?"

"Well," Korra said, putting her hands behind her head as she stared up into Asami's eyes. "I guess I've just been thinking."

"Quelle surprise," Asami retorted.

Korra reached up, apparently tired of playing with her her own shorn locks, and began to twist one of Asami's black curls around her finger. "I just… wondered if that was how it was supposed to feel, I guess. I thought maybe you'd had… more experience with it than I did."

"I'm afraid Mako was my first—and only—boyfriend, same as you," Asami admitted.

Korra tugged lightly on the strand of hair wrapped around her fingers. "I can't believe you'd only have gone out with one person before Mako. You weren't like me, locked away at the South Pole all your life."

Asami laughed. "Well… you're right. There was someone else. But we weren't really official. Daddy didn't approve, and… when he caught us together he was a bit upset."

"Why?" Korra asked.

"Well…" she replied, averting her gaze as she withdrew her touch from Korra self consciously. "The person I liked wasn't a boy. Daddy wanted me to get married and have heirs, and… and he said it was 'weird'."

Korra licked her lips. "You mean… you kissed a girl?"

"And I liked it," she said with a faint smile. "After all, there's not much difference between a man's lips and a woman's, right? Why shouldn't you be able to kiss either?"

"I… I never thought of it like that," Korra said. "But… Mako's lips were always a little too rough… and he always had this rough patch of stubble that rubbed me the wrong way no matter how well he shaved. I always liked that he was kissing me, but I don't know if I liked the kissing, itself." She looked back into Asami's eyes, who furtively met her gaze. "Do you… do you really think kissing a girl is the same as kissing a guy?"

"Well, I guess there's really only one way to find out," Asami said, giving her friend an encouraging smile.

Korra looked down with an embarrassed grin. "Well… would you mind if I… you…?"

"Really?" she asked softly.

"Yeah," Korra said. "I mean… I've wanted to try for a long time, but I just… didn't think I was supposed to…"

Asami was already lowering her lips toward Korra's, her long, pointed chin brushing the tip of the Avatar's nose as she met them with her own, cutting off anything more she was going to say. The contact was brief, but she felt her heart swell in her chest and warmth spread through her body. She broke contact and retreated back to see Korra's glassy eyed stare.

"Korra?" she prompted uncertainly. "Are… are you alright?"

Korra blinked and put her hand to her lips. "Asami?"

The warm feeling in Asami's gut began to freeze as she moved to a sitting position. "Y-yes?"

"I think…" Korra said cautiously. "I might be 'weird.'"


	2. Chapter 2

Night in the Spirit World was very different from that of their own. For one, darkness only seemed to fall when Korra was ready to sleep and lifted the moment she awoke, just as the environment seemed to react to all of her various moods. The sun, or what Asami had thought was the sun, never actually set, either, but only dimmed until it resembled the moon. There were pinpricks of light that seemed like stars, as well, but they occasionally moved of their own accord as if they were bright fireflies high up in the sky. Given the fiery spirits that surrounded them closer to the ground as they slept as well as the other wonders they had encountered so far here, she wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case.

Asami watched the avatar breathing softly from her position beside her, her dark lips pulled into a faint smile as her eyes moved back and forth beneath her lids. She wondered what her friend was dreaming about as she slowly roused from her slumber. She absently hoped that Korra was dreaming of her, just as she had dreamed of the avatar, and a fond grin found her face.

Korra's eyes fluttered open and the world blazed to life. She raised her arm to shield her eyes and groaned. "Ugh. Why does the sun have to wake me up like this every morning?"

Suppressing a laugh, Asami responded. "This vacation is just making you a lazybones, I guess. It was still dark when I woke up."

"Huh," Korra said, glancing at Asami crossly. The moment they made eye contact, however, her expression softened and her cheeks bloomed red. She looked away again, uncharacteristically bashful. "Well… I guess I'm just able to relax more here… with you."

Silence stretched out between them as they furtively considered each other. Then, on an impulse, Asami leaned over and gave Korra a quick peck on the cheek. "Well, we should pick up and get moving if we want to see more of what the Spirit World has to offer."

Korra bolted upright, her face taut with surprise. Touching her cheek, she looked back at Asami, who had already moved to begin packing her bedding into her backpack. Saying nothing, she gathered up her things as well, and soon they were ready to depart.

As they made their way down a path lined with strange, glowing plants and flitting creatures, Asami let Korra take the lead and silently watched her rippling back. Blood rushed to her cheeks as she thought about the masculine firmness of her muscular body contrasted with the shockingly slick feminine softness of her lips. She wondered if being a waterbender contributed to keeping them so tantalizingly moist.

She absently flipped her hair, a habit she'd picked up when she felt the need to be noticed by a prospective partner. Not that it did much good with Korra's back to her. Thinking back to Korra's reaction to her quick kiss on the cheek, Asami wondered if this was even the best time. She began to sink deeper into thought as she considered the best way to broach the subject of their relationship, especially in light of last night's "experiment," but her mind was having trouble focusing for some reason.

"Uh… Asami?"

She glanced up at Korra, who was looking over back at her from over her shoulder as she continued walking forward. "Huh? What is it, Korra?"

Korra blushed, pulling at her hair. "Oh, it's nothing… just… you've been staring at my butt for at least a minute."

"Oh!" Asami looked back down at Korra's glutes, which kept rhythmically pumping up and down as they walked, and then tore her eyes away from the tempting sight to look back at Korra's face, her own as red as her jacket's trim. "Sorry! I was just… uh… deep in thought."

Korra came to a halt and turned toward Asami, hand on her hip with a playfully cocky smirk. "Yeah? Was it the same thought Mako always had when he used to look at either of our butts?"

Asami laughed, an edge of embarrassment still in her voice. "Wh-what do you mean 'used to'?"

"True," Korra said. "Can't blame the guy for still looking, I guess."

"Listen," Asami blurted. "About last night! And... this morning…"

Korra's eyes widened, and she looked away, a shade of fear crossing her face.

"When you said… well, implied… that you were like me," Asami continued. "I know we haven't talked about it yet, and maybe we don't need to, but I need let you know how I feel."

"Asami?" Korra whispered, her voice trembling.

"Look," she said, her words spilling out like water. "I really like you and… I think we were meant for each other!"

Korra gasped, her hand coming to her heart. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Her legs shook beneath her. "I…" she finally managed to cough out. "Asami… I…"

_Winter, Spring… Summer and Fall_

_Winter, Spring… Summer and Fall_

Korra turned her head at the sound. It wasn't quite a voice, but more of a feeling. "I think… that might be General Iroh."

Asami turned in the direction she felt the voice coming from. "The commander of United Forces' 1st DIV? Why would he be here?"

"No, no!" Korra said, voice rising in excitement. "I mean Iroh the Elder."

"Isn't he…" Asami began. "Oh, wait. Spirit World. Right."

Korra turned to dash into the strange growth. "C'mon, Asami, follow me. You have to meet this guy!"

"Korra, wait!" Asami cried, running after her. She was quick and agile, but the spirit foliage was thick and Korra seemed to pulled along while she fell behind. She pressed on, however, following the sound of the song.

_Four seasons… fou-ou-ou-our loves_

_Four seasons… fo-o-o-or lo-o-o-ove_

"Korra!" she called after the vanishing form. She grunted as she pushed past the plantlife that barred her way. She couldn't see Korra anymore, but she knew that if she just kept moving toward the voice she would find her again.

Sure enough, the light of a clearing ahead filled her vision, and with a final push she broke through onto a bright beach. While a bit shocked to find a beach randomly at the edge of what was best described as a forest, she ignored that for the moment and whipped her head around in search of either the source of the voice or her friend.

"So we finally meet the lovely Asami," a man's voice said.

"What?" Asami said. "Wh-who are you? Where are you?"

"Ohh, why'd you have to rub it in how lovely she is?" came another voice, far more familiar to her.

"Korra?" Asami shouted. "Where are you?"

"Asami!" Korra exclaimed, almost lewdly. She turned back toward the woods, wondering if she had somehow gotten ahead of the avatar. "Ohhh," Korra sighed longingly. "Even from the back. _Ohhhhhh_!"

Asami's face turned cherry red and she turned back toward the water, assuming that if Korra was talking about her back she must be in that direction. "Korra, listen, I'm going to try to find you. Just keep talking."

"The makeup is amazing!" Korra said excitedly. "And the fashion is… phenomenal. And she's _so-o-o-o_ pretty."

Asami covered a hot cheek with her hand. "Korra, maybe you could talk about something else?"

"She's _so-o-o_ pretty and cool," Korra continued. "Every time I see her I get mad."

"Asami _is_ hot," came the male voice, drawing her attention away as she tried to figure out just what was going on. Her eyes narrowed as she advanced more slowly to the beach. She took off her backpack, reaching inside and pulling out her shock glove. Something about this was striking her as highly suspicious.

"And lady. Can. _Drive_," Korra said, dripping with lust. The tone coming from that voice would have sent tingles up Asami's spine at any other time, but instead she shivered coldly as she continued to scan the beach.

Tentacles burst from the shoreline, wrapping around her limbs before she could react. A giant fishlike head burst from the water, its full, humanlike lips opening to reveal razorlike teeth.

Asami screamed, struggling to break free or grab one of the tentacles with her shock glove, but to no avail. "Wh-what are you? Why are you doing this?"

"All due respect to Mako," Korra's voice came from the direction of the creature, though the sound didn't seem to come from its mouth. "But, me as a person, I tend to… not go for… the, like, y'know… popular jerks." The tentacles pulled Asami into the air and toward its waiting maw. "Sorry, Mako."

A blue blur tore through the tentacles between Asami and the strange spirit fish, severing those holding Asami's hands. She immediately charged her glove and, though she found herself suddenly upside down, strongly discouraged the remaining free tentacles from recapturing her arms with her electric shocks. The blur came back around again, slashing through the remaining tentacles holding her feet and sending her toppling to the ground.

The spirit roared in anger and retreated back into the ocean, disappearing in a fountain of foam, its severed tentacles slithering in after it.

Asami turned in the direction she'd seen whatever weapon that had been travel in, and saw the outline of a man in water tribe garb. "Wh-what…"

The man chuckled and holstered his boomerang. He spoke with the same masculine voice she had heard before. "Looks like you had a run-in with good ol' Kweh. Lucky you got away. She usually feeds on stray voices, but I guess it's been a little too quiet around here and she wanted a more hefty meal." He held out his hand to take Asami's ungloved one. "Name's Sokka, by the way. What brings Avatar Korra's special friend out this way?"

Asami opened her mouth, then closed it. She considered something for a moment before sheepishly taking the man's hand. "This place is _weird_."


	3. Chapter 3

"Asami?" Korra called into the trees. Well, they weren't so much trees as they were giant leaves whose trunk-like stems sprouted from the ground in a similar manner as trees. She wasn't entirely sure why the Spirit World seemed to have such an aversion to actual trees while being abundant in "forests".

Korra pushed through the foliage, raising her voice louder. "Asami, where are you? Sorry for running ahead, I was just excited!" She had noticed that Asami had disappeared a few minutes ago, shortly after they had broken brush to find General Iroh, and panic was already beginning to rise in her chest.

"What am I going to do?" Korra wondered. "I can't lose you... not you!" As she wracked her jumbled brain for a solution she continued to stumble around the forest, turning herself 360° as her eyes wandering the shadows for Asami's familiar shape. So absorbed was she that she was taken completely by surprise when she backed right into a tangle of vines.

When she regained her balance, she looked around to find herself in the middle of a long hallway lined with lockers. Confused, she looked down at herself, and found that she was dressed in a gray and maroon outfit that looked like a Fire Nation academy uniform, though the skirt she felt was a bit shorter than would probably have been allowed. She also couldn't help but note, after registering the sudden clothing change, that her chest was decidedly lacking in its usual plumpness, and her arms and legs were quite scrawny. Her rear was thankfully also not quite as voluminous, as it barely fit underneath her skirt's fabric as it was. All in all, her body hadn't looked like this since she was fourteen.

"Great," she said to herself. "More spirit world shenanigans. Just what I need."

Korra looked back up at the place from which she had fallen, and saw an open locker. It had a stack of books and some pictures of several people she knew from the material world, including Mako with X'd out hearts drawn around him, Bolin, Opal, and Jinora. A large poster of Asami in a very provocative pose as she sat on a Satomobile clad only in a bikini was also pasted on the inside of the locker door. It was autographed.

Grabbing the small bookbag from the locker, she closed it while attempting to force the blood from her cheeks. "Well… guess this was meant for me," she reasoned. "Only way I'm getting out of here is probably going along with it."

A bell rang from high on the wall, and doors burst open all around her. Korra found herself in a sea of bodies dressed in the same type of uniform. As she tried to navigate the flood of spirit students, she felt a vague sense of familiarity. It was as if she knew the boys and girls bustling around her, though she couldn't place the faces. While she reflected on this peculiar feeling she walked right into another student and they both dropped their bags.

"I'm so sorry," she blurted as she ducked down to gather the books that had spilled out of both their bags. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Don't worry about it, Korra," a youthful boy's voice said. When Korra looked up, she saw an airbender who looked for all the world like a bald Jinora. Aang smiled. "I was pretty lost when I first got here, too."

They both stood at the same time, their books safely back in place. Another young man behind Aang clapped his hand on his shoulder and spoke warmly. "Fortunately you had a kind upperclassman to help you."

Korra stared at this new boy. His hair was jet black, his skin was smooth, and his face clean-shaven, but the features screamed "Avatar Roku."

Aang turned to Roku and laughed. "Yeah, I guess the honor is mine, now, huh?"

"E-excuse me, Aang," Korra said unsurely. "I… I thought all the past avatars were destroyed years ago. What's going on?"

"Good question," Aang said, his brows knitting in confusion. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. The Spirit Academy Avatars haven't lost a Probending match in… what, nearly two hundred years?" He elbowed Roku as if sharing an inside joke.

Roku laughed. "You're never going to let me live down that fumble, eh? Thankfully, our most junior member picked up my slack in the next match."

Korra's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Ho… kay…"

The bell rang again, and Aang grabbed her wrist. "Oh, but we don't have time to stand around and talk. We have to get to class!" He pulled her along behind him as he raced down the halls. Korra was shocked at the strength he must have in his small frame to drag her around like a doll like that. Before the bell finished ringing, Korra found herself thrown into a desk toward the front of a classroom, feeling bewildered. She looked around the room, recognizing the faces of several of her past lives, though many significantly more youthful than she remembered, but curiously Aang was nowhere to be seen.

"Avatar!"

Korra jumped in her seat and whipped her head to the front. There in front of her was a Fire Nation officer with sideburns more impressive than even Tenzin's beard. She leaned back as she realized this was the war criminal, Admiral Zhao, who had once successfully invaded her sister tribe in the north and temporarily killed the moon spirit.

He stalked toward her, a glint in his eyes. Leaning down, he growled, "I am Zhao, the Conqueror. I am the Moon Slayer! I will capture the Avatar." He narrowed his eyes.

"Uh…" Korra said. She smiled uneasily. "Well, looks like ya got me."

Zhao brought his hands down forcefully on Korra's desk. "I am Zhao, the Conqueror. I am the Moon Slayer?"

Korra looked around the room, the uneasy feeling that she was in the presence of a madman sinking in. A quiet hiss drew her attention to her left, where she saw Roku holding up a piece of paper with words scrawled across it. He was pointing animatedly at it.

"I am Zhao, the Conqueror. I am the Moon Slayer?!" Zhao said once more.

"U-uh, I… uh…" Korra stammered. She cleared her throat and recited Roku's message. "Zhao the Conqueror, Zhao the Moon Slayer, Zhao the Invincible!"

Zhao straightened, clasping his hands behind his back as he smiled approvingly. "I am a legend, now. I will capture the Avatar."

Korra sighed and sank down into her seat as Zhao continued to pace the classroom, spouting what seemed like complete non sequiturs at the class. This went on for nearly an hour before the bell rang again, and he dismissed them with a hearty, "Do it!"

Aang appeared as soon as Korra stepped outside the room. "What did I just sit through?" she asked him.

"Yeah, Professor Zhao's class can be pretty boring," he said. "That's why I always skip it. He's never been able to catch me, either."

"Y-yeah," Korra said.

"Come on, Korra," Aang said, grabbing her arm. "It's lunchtime. You should eat with me and my friends."

Korra allowed dumbly allowed herself to be pulled along behind Aang, whose speed was impressive even without using his airbending. She found herself in the lunchroom in a blink, her tray filled with heaping piles of spirit food. "Does… does that cupcake have eyes?" she wondered aloud.

"Let me introduce you to our group," Aang said as he sat down beside her. He gestured to three other people sitting across from them. "You already know Roku," he said, and then pointed at a tall woman with short hair and heavy makeup. "That's Kyoshi."

"Greetings," she said in turn.

Aang then pointed at a young man with long, wild hair and a cocky grin, his uniform jacket unbuttoned and rumpled. "And that's Kuruk."

"Yo," he said.

"Guys, this is Korra," Aang said. "She just enrolled here."

"Uh," Korra began. "I didn't exactly…"

"So are you into Probending?" Aang interrupted. Then he punched himself in the head. "Oh, what am I saying, of course you are. You're here."

Korra couldn't argue with that, exactly. He wasn't even wrong.

"Hey, yeah," Roku said, giving her an evaluatory once-over. "She's Water Nation… maybe she can join our Probending team."

Kyoshi nodded solemnly. "Yes, our current Water Nation player has been… distracted lately. And you look rather formidable, besides."

"Wait," Kuruk said, blinking. "What?"

"See what she means?" Roku said, gesturing with his chin at the long-haired Water Tribesman. "It's worse than when he first came here after his girlfriend left him for some two-faced jerk, but now…"

"I dunno what you guys are talking about," Kuruk protested. "I'm perfectly…" he trailed off suddenly and his eyes became unfocused. His jaw went slack and his face flushed bright red. "Beau-u-u-utiful…"

"Cue the soft focus and cheesy music," Kyoshi quipped, rolling her eyes.

Korra, against her better judgment, turned to see what had gotten her predecessor so worked up. To her surprise, though given this was the Spirit World she knew she shouldn't have been, she literally saw the world slow, go unfocused, and glitter like the surface of a pond on a sunny day as Avatar Wan strode into the cafeteria, his hair blowing in a nonexistent wind.

"Oh, yeah," Aang said, quietly. "That's Wan, our Student Body President."

Kuruk sighed. "And… what a body…"

Korra looked back at Kuruk, a horrified expression plastered upon her face. "No. No, no." She hit the table with the side of her balled fist. "This… is too weird!"


End file.
